"The
waning days of 1956 witness the greatest array of first-run attractions
ever presented to Detroit movie goers in a holiday season," wrote
Al Weitschat in the December 23 Detroit News. Christmas Day openings
included The
Teahouse of the August Moon, with Marlon Brando (at the Adams);
Elia Kazan's controversial Baby
Doll (Palms); and the last Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis movie, Hollywood
or Bust (Michigan). On December 27, the United Artists Theatre hosted
the Detroit premiere of Michael
Todd's Around the World in 80 Days.

The
Redford joined in the fun with a rare first run showing of a major filmFriendly
Persuasion, with Gary Cooper, which also opened on December 25. "Certainly
this is the most appropriate picture for the Christmas season, because
it deals with kind hearts and gentle people and strong faith and abiding
love," wrote Weitschat in the December
25 News. "It is a far cry from the spectacular stuff filling
the large screens."

Friendly
Persuasion also brightened Christmas in Ann Arbor, where it played
for eight days at the Michigan. Earlier in the month, the 1940 Alfred
Hitchcock film Rebecca
played for six days. Hitchock's latest, The
Wrong Man (with Henry Fonda), helped Michigan visitors "Celebrate
the Big Nite at Our Gay...Happy New Year's Eve Midnite Show". Ann
Arbor businesses sold tickets to the Merchants Christmas Show at the Michigan,
which on Friday, December 21 featured John Wayne in the 1949 John Ford western
She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon.

The
Motion Picture Association of America loosened the movie morals code.
"The major changes lift completely the code's prohibition against
subjects having to do with illicit narcotics practices, illegal operation,
kidnaping and prostitution," wrote
Al Weitschat in the December 12 Detroit News. Weitschat noted that
"this is the first liberalization of the code since it was adopted
in 1930."